Tim Burton Won't Direct Disney's 'Maleficent' (Exclusive)
The project would have teamed the "Alice in Wonderland" director with Angelina Jolie.
6:44 PM 5/16/2011 by Borys Kit , THRTim Burton has moved off of Maleficent, the Disney fantasy that would have teamed him with Angelina Jolie.
Maleficent is Disney’s live-action take on Sleeping Beauty, telling the fairy tale from the point of view of the evil witch who threatened to kill the princess. Disney put a name to the evil witch, who had gone unnamed in the various tellings, and the green-skinned queen of evil who morphs into a dragon has gone on to become one of the most popular Disney villains all time.
Burton was only loosely attached to the project, but his involvement was significant enough that last year the studio hired Burton's Alice in Wonderland collaborator Linda Woolverton, who also wrote Disney’s The Lion King, to write the script. The project is being developed as a starring vehicle for Jolie.
Disney is not about to go put Maleficent into a suspended-animation sleep and is now on the hunt for a new director. One of the names that has surfaced in the early search is David Yates, the director of the past four Harry Potter movies.
Burton hasn’t left Disney and is working on the feature-length stop-motion version of his 1984 short, Frankenweenie. The movie is due for release in Oct. 5, 2012.
Reactions
by Brendan Bettinger
Burton is a frequently great director, and Maleficent has a striking premise, but this split is surely for the best. The headache of my Alice in Wonderland viewing never fully subsided, and another megabudget Burton movie with dragons and wicked women and Gothic set design (presumably) sounds like a vicious migraine in the making.
Warner Bros. wants Yates for their Al Capone biopic Cicero. But if his schedule permits, or Disney can lure him away from the Harry Potter studio, Yates is a great choice for the subject matter and scope of the project. Good luck, Mickey.
By Josh Winning | May 17th 2011
Burton’s departure from the film appears to be an amicable one, with his Alice In Wonderland scriptwriter Linda Woolverton still attached to scribe Maleficent’s script.
Meanwhile, Burton is still pressing ahead on his Frankenweenie feature over at the Mouse House.
Disney are apparently now interested in contracting Harry Potter director David Yates to take on Maleficent. Which could prove difficult, considering he’s tied in to Al Capone biopic Cicero over at Warner Bros.
For Burton fans who were confused and disappointed by his loud, crowded Alice adaptation, his departure from Maleficent can surely only come as good news.
Burton’s next film, Gothic TV adap Dark Shadows, opens May 2012.
